Outdoors With Mat Taylor
TPWD offers free fishing to encourage participation

The weather is warming and as the temperature rises, the interest in fishing also rises.

Due to that increased interest, Texas Parks and Wildlife again is offering its "Free Fishing in State Parks" initiative. This program encourages Texas residents to spend time enjoying one of America's greatest outdoor activities.

Fishing has long been one of the most popular activities in the U.S., and TPWD hopes everyone will want to share in the memories that can be created on the water.

Texas Parks and Wildlife has waived the normal fishing license and stamp requirements for anyone who fishes inside the property boundary of a state park. The park entrance fee is required, but once it is paid no one needs a fishing license or stamp, whether for freshwater or saltwater, adult or child, as long as they are inside the park.

Bag limits, length limits and other regulations still apply and will be enforced.

Anglers can fish from the bank, pier, river or creek, or from a boat, if the water body is fully contained in the state park boundary. Wadefishing is allowed in the coastal state parks along park property.

This is the fifth year of the free fishing program, and it has been extended through Aug. 31.

A complete list of the coastal and inland parks that offer free fishing opportunities can be found at www.tpwd.state.tx.us.

Two state parks within reasonable driving distance of the Lampasas area are Colorado Bend and Inks Lake State Park.

My wife, Nelda, and I took advantage of the free fishing program a few months ago. We fished for stocked rainbow trout in South Llano River State Park. Every year I purchase a super combo license that includes all stamps. Nelda, however, doesn't fish that often, and the free fishing program allows her to fish alongside me.

Free Fishing in State Parks provides an opportunity to introduce kids, spouses or friends who are not anglers to the sport. Also, if a person does not want to purchase a fishing license this late in the year -- new licenses are required by Sept. 1 -- he or she can fish in a state park without the added expense.

Speaking of fishing, I have heard reports that angling has never been better on Amistad Lake, the huge international reservoir near Del Rio on the Mexican border.

Last fall when I traveled U.S. Highway 90 to the Davis Mountains, I noticed a lot of increased activity between Del Rio and the lake. New motels, restaurants and houses were under construction. It seems Val Verde County is experiencing an economic boom based on water that is normally scarce in this area along the desert.

After a 10-year drought, soaking rains refilled Amistad beginning in 2003. The rising water flooded vegetation that had grown up on the dry lake bottom, and the submerged vegetation provided many hiding places where young bass could grow up.

Texas Parks and Wildlife took advantage of the filling lake and increased its fish stocking program, putting 874,000 largemouth bass fingerlings into the lake in 2004 and 2005. In 2006, 4,519 Sharelunker fingerlings also were stocked there.

TPWD and the National Park Service cooperated on studies in 2002-03 and 2007 that gave a picture of the lake before and after the rise. During 2002- 03, anglers fished for 319,473 hours in Amistad and spent $4.2 million in Val Verde County and another $1.2 million outside the county. During this period, it was estimated anglers caught 197,000 bass.

Amistad received a lot of national publicity in 2006 due to several successful televised bass fishing tournaments in which a number of lunker bass were caught.

Hours spent fishing skyrocketed to 606,189 in 2007. Preliminary results from an economic study show direct expenditures by anglers in 2007 jumped to $13.7 million in Val Verde County and another $7 million outside the county. That is $20.7 million in actual dollars spent, an increase of 183 percent.

Outdoor activities are good news for the Texas economy. The news is even better for largemouth bass in Amistad.

A TPWD creek survey conducted by biologists show that Amistad bass fishery remains one of the best in the country. A significant number of fish four pounds and larger were found in the survey.

If an angler wants to increase the chance of catching a trophy bass, Amistad seems to be the place to go. You had better have a good seaworthy boat, however, as the huge lake can be very rough at times.

Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via e-mail at mntaylor@agristar.net.